The payment of benefits, severance pay and bonuses to members of the previous management of the Plantation and employment of seasonal labor through private agencies are under the special attention of inspectors of the Special Police Department (SPO).
They seized the complete business documentation of that company, trying to determine if someone had damaged the company's coffers by embezzlement, filling private pockets.
At that time, the executive director of Plantaž was Verica Maraš, while the board of directors was headed by Veselin Vukotić.
The head of the Legal Service at that time was the current Executive Director Miroslav Vuković.
An interlocutor involved in the investigation unofficially told "Vijesti" that there are indications that the company was not working legally, but this is not yet a final conclusion.
The police inspectors came to these data by determining why and what all of the company's documentation was burned by the former management of Plantaž.
In April, the inspectors found that part of the files related to the payroll in that state-owned company had been set on fire.
However, the traces of the payments remained in the computer program that records the payments, to the banks that paid the money...
The interlocutor from the Police Administration said at the time that they were determining whether the burned documents related to payments "in hand", which were possibly recorded only in internal documents.
Police inspectors then seized part of the business documentation from Plantaž, as part of the investigation launched by the Special State Prosecutor's Office.
This was done after the State Audit Institution (DRI) published a report with a double negative assessment.
"Vijesti" was then told by SPO that they did not get the impression that the documentation had been destroyed, but that they would determine that: "Certainly, if they were trying to do something, DRI had insight into that documentation, so it will be of use to us," he explained. previously a source from the investigation.
In the report on the control of the operations of "Plantaža", the SAI found violations of six laws on auditing, business companies, occupational safety, prevention of illegal operations, work and the system of internal financial controls in the public sector, as well as violations of several regulations defining the company's operations.
The use of cash for payments without a clear basis and in violation of the law, payment of money without a signed contract and issued invoices, sale of products without a clear price list and criteria to individual partners, suspicious transactions, the absence of an audit committee and numerous internal company acts was established...
Because of all this, the SAI gave a double negative opinion on the financial operations and on the audit of the compliance of Plantaž operations with legal and sub-legal regulations.
The SAI submits any negative opinion, in accordance with the procedures, to the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office (SSP).
The report referred to the company's work in 2018 and for part in 2019, but also to the practice from previous years.
Maraš asked the SAI to delete certain parts of the report in which the irregularities were mentioned, because "publishing them would be a violation of the company's internal trade secret", as well as to delete several assessments of the SAI on the company's work or to mitigate them.
As stated in the report, she proposed to the auditors to clarify all dilemmas at the meeting with the aim of successful cooperation, reproaching the auditors for giving too detailed a report on the spending of money from the treasury - "because it is associated with illegal business".
On the remark that there is no price list for certain products and services, Marasheva explained that this is also a business secret...
She writes that she objected to DRI's evaluations that the company did not carry out dedicated cash withdrawals, because it was "too prominent" and suggested that it should be explained differently.
She also claimed that too much space is given to the treatment of per diem calculations for official trips, that detailed specifications of expenses "with whom we work and in what amounts" are given, she also asked to delete the statement "in addition to obvious problems" in business...
An extraordinary audit requested by the Ministry of Agriculture at the beginning of the year recently concluded that the company owes 45 million euros.
They also found that he is facing bankruptcy.
The reason for such a situation was cited as irrational business in the past years, spending huge amounts of money on disputed fees and other privileges that the management granted itself.
The recent board of directors announced that the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of the Russian market are to blame for the crisis, as well as that the company has 20 million liters of wine worth 35 to 38 million euros in stock.
From the Ministry of Agriculture, they previously expressed doubts about the accuracy of the stock value stated in the balance sheets of that state-owned company.
The time to complete the request is running out
The trade union organization "Plantaža" organized a warning strike last week because, as they say, they failed to reach a social dialogue with the employer.
They are asking for four requests to be fulfilled by tomorrow - July 1, the main of which is the dismissal of the executive director Miroslav Vuković and the entire management of the company.
They demand regular and non-selective payment of wages in the gross amount along with payment of bank loans and other suspensions from employees' accounts.
The third requirement is the creation of a new systematization of workplaces with the active participation of representatives of the Trade Union Organization. The fourth request refers to the withdrawal of the initiative to the Constitutional Court for the evaluation of the constitutionality of the collective agreement of the company, as well as the withdrawal of the lawsuit in connection with the violation of the fiduciary duty of the members of the board of directors of the company and the determination of the nullity of that legal transaction.
The union accuses the director and management, most of whom were in the same and similar positions in the past years, of destroying the company with bad business decisions and wasting money. They are asking the new board of directors to choose new management who, they say, would run the company like a household.
Bonus video:
